March 5, 2016

Many of those who seek to diminish Donald Trump have jumped at the idea of tagging him with the name Drumpf, which was the surname of his ancestors if you go way back. You have to go back before his father immigrated to America, which was 1885, but it is there in the records. TV comedy man John Oliver seemed to think it was a very funny idea to rename Trump "Drumpf," because it sounds dumber, as many non-English names do to the ears of English-speakers.

Immigrants in modern America, however, do not often change their names anymore..... Name changes do remain popular among entertainers. For example, Jon Stewart, whose “Daily Show” is in some ways the parent of Mr. Oliver’s HBO program, was born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz. As Mr. Oliver noted, Mr. Trump once criticized Mr. Stewart for changing his name, tweeting that “he should cherish his past — not run from it.”

And many politicians have also undergone name changes, notably two presidents, Bill Clinton, who changed his name from William Jefferson Blythe III, and Gerald Ford, who was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. Mr. Trump’s potential opponent in the general election, Hillary Clinton, long held to her maiden name of Rodham, but she now campaigns without it.

Maybe Oliver should have checked to see which side would be helped more before he went with the idea of laughing at other people's funny names. But quite aside from that, this business of laughing at foreign names is — to use an epithet often thrown at Trump — xenophobic.

By the way, I have a last name that got anglicized in its spelling, in the Drumpf/Trump fashion. Althaus became Althouse. My family name, like Trump's got respelled in the 17th century. I've always understood a name change like that as a kindness to the ordinary people who were going to be trying to spell it. You've anticipated the difficulty, accommodated them, and, graciously, made them correct.

In German, a frontal "D" like that would be pronounced in ways that am Anglophone would hear as "T" sounds. As for the final "pf", nobody can say that in English. That's why when you go into a hardware store you ask for a "Price-(F)ister" faucet, not a "Price-(PF)ister faucet".

I saw Oliver's piece - on the whole it was good. The portion about "Drumph" was done to show that part of Trump's appeal is his great name. So he posits that Trump would not be as successful if he had a less appealing name, such as Drumph.

There are plenty of political issues to criticize Trump on. I find it fascinating that many of the same people who criticize Trump for juvenile and below the belt attacks, fall into the Trump trap of juvenile and below the belt attacks when responding to Trump. It does seem like Trump really is rubber and they are glue...

And by the way, I hate to spoil the narrative, but it was not Donald Trump who changed his family name. All of the others you cite (and some you don't, such as "Bill DeBlasio" changed their names themselves.

I find it fascinating that many of the same people who criticize Trump for juvenile and below the belt attacks, fall into the Trump trap of juvenile and below the belt attacks when responding to Trump.

I always felt like "he started it" was a pretty good defense! But it never worked with my parents.

I have a friend with Scottish ancestry named McRae, his family was originally MacRaes in Scotland, a clerical error by an immigration official in North Carolina in the 19th century changed them all from Macs to Mcs.

Also, it's a weird double standard that the white guy is allowed to say any damn rude thing he wants to, but when Marco Rubio makes a clean joke about Donnie's hands, everybody starts clutching their pearls. "How dare that immigrant make such a foul dirty joke in our presence!"

Or as Althouse puts it, Terrible low comedy. Are you fucking kidding me? We live in a culture of Vagina Monologues and a constant discussion on this blog about pussy and dicks, and you're going to take a cheap shot at Marco Rubio for that joke?

"And by the way, I hate to spoil the narrative, but it was not Donald Trump who changed his family name. All of the others you cite (and some you don't, such as "Bill DeBlasio" changed their names themselves. But whatever it takes, right."

Did you read the post?!

Why are you acting as though you are the first one to mention something that is very clearly stated (and with more detail) in the post? That feels disrespectful and your choice of words make it seem as though you very much intended to be disrespectful. What's that all about?

The worthless cunt keeps coming over to Lem's to provoke a reaction. Posting and reposting the same crap over and over. Exactly what they complain about that Mary person who was the reason they shut off their comments.

Now the worthless cunt Meade is doing the same shit. Over and over again.

I guess he must be bored with his mark. Maybe he should target some other blogger. I think Pam Geller is single. Or maybe Andrew Sullivan.

Trump has the gift of deranging his enemies. Rubio panicked and became callow frat boy. Oliver has become Beavis. Or Butthead. They say Trump is petty and shallow, so mock his name. "You're lowering the tone motherfucker. "

"Now the worthless cunt Meade is doing the same shit. Over and over again."

Yah, I lost all respect for Meade when he trolled and attacked the Althouse-in-waiting blog after her meltdown. These were the people on her side, but that wasn't enough for him.

And her meltdown was the day the wheels came off this blog. Its never been what it was before. Lots of great commentators never heard from again. Althouse forgot that people came here not just for her, but for her community.

Sure. But I'm not married to the blog's owner. You were fine as "just another troll" before that. But now you ARE Althouse, whether you like it or not. So trolling from you is no different than trolling from her. It disgraces and lowers you, and her along with you. Imagine Ann going to Lem's blog to drop shit bombs. That's what it looks like.

Also, it puts you in a different category here because you get to troll without consequence. Its a clear conflict on interest.

It also didn't help that you were obviously butthurt because your lady experienced pushback for the stupid thing she did. You threw a little temper tantrum back then. And failed at even being a decent troll.

Yah. Shit bombs. You shit all over the people that supported Althouse. Because you felt they weren't doing it with the proper amount of enthusiasm. And because, despite their loyalty to Althouse, they saw the other side's point. You were like the guy starting a 2nd purge because your people weren't clapping loudly enough.

Meade I remember you at Lem's after this blog went total moderation and you were over-the-top annoying. Shocking that many here would be pissed when they were treated like children ie freedom of speech, etc.

Also remember when Althouse was gonna change her publishing platform from Google to WordPress IIRC, but as we all know she's not a big fan of change er she likes tradition ie never missing a day without a post since Jan. 2004.

ok, water under the bridge ...

btw, let the record show I was not the reason for total moderation having left 6 mos. earlier.

Fen, Meade, gentlemen the bickering is unmanly. Now let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I'm glad Shiloh is back, not that I agree with him for the most part but he is part of what makes this blog so special. I hope all of the long ago commenters return other than the bigot whose name I won't mention. Who wants an echo chamber? However much commenters may disagree with each other the great thing about this blog is even the "tolls" are usually intelligent and makes one think. Althouse isn't without flaws and blind spots (who isn't) but she has done something unique in the blogosphere so let's not ruin it.

I fear name changing by Emperor Trump is just beginning. I hear he favors going back to New Amsterdam. And who was that Duke of York guy anyway?

My family is from a long line of Donaldsons. The sons of Donald are part of the McDonald Clan. Another European branch of my family uses the English place name ending in HAM. That is Saxon German for Home or boro, and they named all of the East Anglia towns. But it's pronounced UMMM. Like the ending syllable of of Nottingham, Cunningham, Birmingham, Brougham, etc..

Meade is the worst kind of scum. I have stayed away for a long time. I want to stay away. But Meade persists in spaming my posts at Lems blog. When I delete him he reposts it. Over and over again. Just the way Mary does here.

"Yah, I lost all respect for Meade when he trolled and attacked the Althouse-in-waiting blog after her meltdown. These were the people on her side, but that wasn't enough for him."

Fen, you have never liked this blog. The idea that something happened that changed your mind is just not believable. You come here to drop in attacks, not to be in any sort of real conversation with people.

"And her meltdown was the day the wheels came off this blog."

This is a way of referring to something that maybe some people understand, but I am not one of those people, and I suspect you are just boring most readers by attacking me in obscure language.

"Its never been what it was before. Lots of great commentators never heard from again. Althouse forgot that people came here not just for her, but for her community."

The people who are here now have their motivations and the conversation is what it is, but you were never interested in this community.

Here is some not obscure language. Tell you lawnboy to stop trolling and spaming my posts at Lems blog.

I have stayed away from this cesspool for a long time. I want to keep it that way. Let's go back to ignoring each other. Maybe you should put a lock on the computer while you are at work so Larry doesn't have access to stir up bullshit.

Will Cate wrote:"there being no "th" diphthong in Gaelic."Oh, like those ancestors could sign their names with more than a "x", anyhow.The letter thorn, þ, was used in Scottish newspapers until at least 1800.

I'm all for cherishing your heritage but when you've decided to be American and not go back to old country maybe changing your name is a good a thing. For example, I have a polish friend whose last name is Wiscercoswski - needless to say he has to tell people how to spell his name at least once a day. And I know a Chinese co-worker whose last name is Fuk.

Yikes! I go to the store and, when I come back, I'm appalled at the direction the comment thread has taken. If this blog or the comments make your head explode, then just don't read it. I enjoy a heated discussion, but I find irrational hatred offensive.

Commiserations to Janice Lokelani Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele of Honolulu, Hawaii. Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele's last name was too long for the state DMV, so the last letter was dropped on her driver's license, leaving her a truncated and unhappy Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunael, and her Christian names were not included at all. There just wasn't room.

This made things awkward at traffic stops, so Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele got around with her state ID card. When she renewed that card recently, though, Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele saw that her name was now shortened on that card too.

Ms. Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele may not have a valid driver's license or ID card, but she still has the race card, and has been playing it with vigor. Quote from her: "How disrespectful of the Hawaiian people! You see, to some people in the world, your name is everything. Unfortunately, many people have been shamed into hiding their real names because they don't fit in with the dominant culture's lack of respect for the name." End quote.

loudogblog said..."Yikes! I go to the store and, when I come back, I'm appalled at the direction the comment thread has taken. If this blog or the comments make your head explode, then just don't read it. I enjoy a heated discussion, but I find irrational hatred offensive."

Thanks for your support.

Sometimes I leave things like that up because they are self-canceling. The person who speaks like that is his own attacker. There's nothing to say. The ugliness speaks for itself and if I leave it up it's because I'm allowing that to be said, a person saying "I am ugly."

Meade doesn't listen to requests to stop commenting. He posts and reposts the same thing after being deleted. He doxes and trolls and won't take no for an answer. The exact behavior that the evil blogger lady has complained about for years. The exact behavior that caused the comment section to be blown up years ago.

How quickly they forget. Now Meade wants to reignite hostilities.

Of course maybe he is just bored. It is time to find some other mark. Some other poor lonely misanthrope just as popular in her professional setting as Ted Cruz is the Congress. Target her. Trade up while being married to someone else. It is his MO. He has done it before.

Ann did you watch the John Oliver bit? You can on youtube. Your family’s name was changed in the 1600s, Trump’s in the late 1800s, so I’m not sure your statement is correct. There’s some question if the name was ever officially changed.

“The Donald’s grandfather was a German immigrant named Frederick Drumpf who emigrated to the U.S. in 1885 and became a naturalized citizen in 1892.

“At some point, he started calling himself “Frederick Trump,” but it is unclear if he ever changed his name officially. Some have speculated that he didn’t want to be known as “Drumpf” because of prevailing prejudice against Germans (which would heighten, of course, during World War I).”

http://www.ibtimes.com/trump-or-drumpf-whats-name-280579

Finally, my take on the video was that "Trump" *sounds* like money, while Drumpf - as Oliver says - sounds like a pigeon flying into the Old Navy store window. I thought it was very funny.

_____

mccullough said...

The Drumpf stuff reminds me of the people stressing Obama's middle name or calling him Barry. It's not only silly, it's off-putting

3/5/16, 12:20 PM

I agree. And I did that two days ago then stopped. The whole "Barry" thing, the whole "Democrat party" thing - I was a little happy to have something to paste up there.

I remember there used to be a very recriminating blogger back in the day called "Bitch, Ph.D."

I never hung out there much, much less commented. I really just opened her page when linked elsewhere for curiosity. But it did occur to me that it was best to avoid anything that would get on her bad side. Or even to taking the chance of doing so by commenting at all.

You couldn't be more wrong. I came here just before the Valenti breast thing. And vigorously defended your pov on those feminist blogs. You even commented about it here. Have you forgotten when you came to DC and I emailed an offer to pick you up at the airport and drive you around to your venues? Why would I do that if I hated you from the start? No, I was a very loyal reader, and you did something to lose that.

I loved your blog because, even though you were liberal, you allowed intelligent debate instead of just banning people who disagreed with you (as most liberal blogs do). Your blog was a rare place on the net where people could abandon echo chambers like DU and FR and exchange ideas here.

I think you took that for granted. You were a great blogger, but maybe it went to your head, you forgot that you were only half the show. People flocked here to read the debate in the comments as much as they came to read you. And then you displayed a great deal of contempt for your own commentariat

The idea that something happened that changed your mind is just not believable.

I had already left before your meltdown, I only heard about it and went back to read the offending post, the one where you trolled your readers with misandry and then clutched your pearls and shut down comments when they pushed back. You turned on your own people, for whatever reason, ego I think.

As for what changed my mind, it was our fight over your disclaimer in the side bar. You only censored the n-word, not other racial slurs. I found that to be a double standard and politely pointed it out. You went apeshit about it and implied I was some kind of racist. That was the beginning of our falling out. I think the last straw was when you front-paged me as some kind of bigot simply because I remarked that I was bored with all the posts about homosexuality.

Also thanks for making my point about Meade. Little troll hiding behind your skirts. He goes to other blogs and disgraces your name, while you rush to his defense here to remind us he can't fight his own battles.

Shiloh: Meade I remember you at Lem's after this blog went total moderation and you were over-the-top annoying. Shocking that many here would be pissed when they were treated like children ie freedom of speech, etc.

See? When Shiloh and Fen agree on a thing, its time to reconsider your position.

Clearly, we have an issue here with people who have last names that end in a vowel.My own last name is of Schwabian derivation, and like many such surnames, it ends with the letter "l". When translated to English it means something like "a person who lives on the dead end road that goes into the hills."The "l" at the end of my surname is what makes me a more honest citizen than the vowel-enders, I reckon.

I'm thinking about my comment at 12:59. Why am I angry at Althouse? I know she's not a racist. Although liberals teach us that we all have unconscious racism.

I think what motivates my anger is how unfair, how weird, it is that Althouse is struggling to be neutral and fair to all the candidates. She looks to say something nice about Trump, and something nice about Rubio. She looks to say something mean about Trump, and something mean about Rubio.

Even-handed.

And she was doing this, even though Trump is obviously a horrible candidate for President. He's rude, he's crude, he's vulgar, he's power-mad, he's lawless. There were so many, many ways to attack Trump that you almost don't know where to begin. I mean, Romney's campaign self-destructed over his 47% remark, and that line about how he likes firing people. He said one or two bad things, and the media went crazy.

Trump says bad things every day! He says so many bad things, it kind of blows our minds.

And the media has been playing this game of "gotcha" with Republicans. We found your secret evil! But with Trump, there was so much evil, and it was loud and proud, that this media game didn't work anymore.

And yet the media could not take their cameras off him! They kept capturing all his bad stuff, and there was this cycle of "Trump says something crazy" and the media gives him free attention. It was a vicious cycle of it.

Anyway, Rubio decided to retaliate. I'm glad he did!

But what was weird and strange is how Althouse wanted to punish him for one vulgar joke. It's like she wanted to resurrect the old Republican standard of pretending that you never do anything wrong, and the media tries to uncover anything bad about you. It was so weird to apply this rule in the 2016 election, when Trump is saying all sorts of evil shit. So this double standard upset me.

I don't think Althouse is an unconscious racist. But I am curious as to why she felt obligated to find something bad to say about Rubio (and Cruz), while simultaneously Trump was dumping all this evil shit on the airwaves. It struck me as strange, and it still does.

"Romney's campaign self-destructed over his 47% remark, and that line about how he likes firing people. He said one or two bad things, and the media went crazy."

Romney made two huge errors, one of which I'm not sure was his fault.

He wimped out in the debate when Candy Crowley, fat bitch that she is, interjected the false factoid provided to her by Obama about terrorist comments.

The second was the failure of his GOTV campaign. The Republicans were far out organized by the Obama people.

His entire demeanor was passive and Mr Nice Guy which is so typical of Mormons I know. The comments from the FSO blog I read are on point.

I had a very minor role on Romney's foreign policy team and did my best from my lowly position to get the campaign to sharpen its message on foreign affairs, especially on Benghazi--to no avail. His campaign was dominated by "the oh-so-clever-ones" who think things to death, and analyze until they paralyze. The papers we sent up to Romney were wordy "on the one hand, but on the other hand" expositions of little to no use in a campaign. They read like something written for a transition team, not a campaign team. It was impossible to get Romney's main handlers to recommend that he go after Obama and Clinton hard on Benghazi and the rest of the misadministration's foreign policy disasters. They thought that was "too politicizing" and "unbecoming." Well, what happened, happened.

Trump has plenty of crudities but he is reaching people Romney did not reach.

"Trooper York wrote:Meade doesn't listen to requests to stop commenting. He posts and reposts the same thing after being deleted. He doxes and trolls and won't take no for an answer."Now we know how he got Althouse. Blackmail.Odd that he spends so much time in the back yard and along forest paths with a shovel and other digging implements, isn't it? Looking for truffles and mushrooms to make his sweety a rustic omelette. Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure that if you take the fifth letter of every word in an Althouse post published in the five o'clock hour, on the fifth of any month, if you arrange them properly they will spell out 'ab-ku-ma', the Assyrian word for "prisoner" (as spoil).

"When will the dumbasses figure out the way to marginalize Trump is to ... wait for it ... stop talking about him ... ?"

Trump = Ratings = $$$ = even FoxNews going w/the flow although they know he would be a train wreck as a Rep nominee.

This is not rocket science. And all media is/are praying for a Rep contested convention in Cleveland. When celebrity meets politics ~ what's not to like.

As elections, especially the presidential election becomes more like a reality tv show. Probably explaining why Trump had a head start on the "deep bench" Rep field ~ name recognition/gift of gab/total recall memory and of course celebrity.

Plus many Rep voters are just sayin' fuck it after "they" lost the last 2 elections to a Black guy from Kenya.

What I meant is: I'm not characterizing the conversation. I'm not buying into the idea that things were better in the past. The comments have gone on for 10+ years, and I don't have an opinion about whether the past was better than the present. The comments happen in the now and simply are. I have always loved the great comments, felt good about the good comments, appreciated the participation of the average comments, wished the below average comments would be better, and deplored the worst comments.

There are some great people here now and there are also some great people who have left. I'm a big believer in the value of the now, whatever it is.

rhhardin wrote:"I always took the vowel at the end of Hawaiian words to be a parity check."The K.K. in "David K.K. Naldoza, 40, Papaikou" bothers me. K.K. is a traditional Chinese thing for a first born son. It means "glorious son" or "son of heaven", something like that. A David Naldoza with the middle initials K.K. shows just how diverse we are in the 808.

My approach is not what you are saying. I'm not trying to say something "nice" about everyone or seeking fairness.

I react to things that I see, things that make me want to talk.

I do react to seeing that elsewhere someone is being misrepresented, misread and distorted.

Much of what you're seeing here relating to Trump is my reaction to the way other people are treating him. I don't like that he's being criticized with a kind of vicious vigor that is not aimed at any other candidate.

Michael K wrote:"The Republicans were far out organized by the Obama people."Most of what Obama did as a 'community organizer' was to register Democrat voters. I have a feeling that if you are a Democratic foot soldier in the Illinois Democrat party, and you register a few hundred thousand Democrat voters, the party bosses will hand you the equivalent of a Willy Wonka golden ticket.

I don't like that he's being criticized with a kind of vicious vigor that is not aimed at any other candidate.

Yeah, I know, that's my point. He earned this treatment. He was out of line. Not once or twice, but multiple times, on multiple issues. He was completely out of line. That's why there was pushback, specific on him.

I missed the comments in the moment tonight. But enjoyed reading them later. We watched William Holden night on Turner Classic Movies and saw Sabrina and Bridge Over The River Kwai. They made good stuff in the 1950s. And I fell in love with a young Audrey Hepburn all over again in black and white. Althouse was 3 that year, but she has outdone her.

My wife does genealogy as a hobby, and she believes that most name changes for immigrants were done by US immigration officials rather than the new arrivals, themselves. Her theory is that those officials Anglicised the name to make it easier to pronounce in English or easier for them to record, and most of the immigrants were either not aware of the change until it was too late or too timid to object. I thnk this makes sense.

Her theory is that those officials Anglicised the name to make it easier to pronounce in English or easier for them to record, and most of the immigrants were either not aware of the change until it was too late or too timid to object. I thnk this makes sense.

I work with a young German woman and a recent immigrant. Her last name was shorn of its umlaut by immigration officials. She still resents this.

I think one of the things Wilder was doing with that movie was attacking Communist ideology. I think there's a political subtext. (Wilder also wrote Ninotchka and One, Two, Three, so he definitely was an anti-Communist). There's a lot about class and class barriers in that movie, and then Wilder blows up the subject with a romance. Wonderful movie.